Terms and conditions

1. General terms and conditions of use

This page (together with the documents referred to on it) tells
you the terms and conditions of use (the "Terms") on which you may
make use of Barrister Connect (the "Portal") available through the
following websites:

http://www.barcouncil.org.uk

These websites and the Portal (together, "our Site") are owned
and operated by The General Council of the Bar ("we/us/our"), the
approved Regulator of the Bar of England and Wales, which
discharges its regulatory functions through the independent Bar
Standards Board. Our principal offices are at 289-293 High Holborn,
London WC1V 7HZ. Our VAT Number is 404524779.

Please read these Terms carefully before you start to use our
Site. By using our Site you indicate that you accept the Terms and
that you agree to abide by them. If you do not agree to these
Terms, please refrain from using our Site.

From time to time we may update these Terms. When we do, we will
publish the changes on our Site. If you do not agree to these
changes, please do not continue to use our Site, as continuing use
of our Site shall be deemed to be your acceptance of the updated
Terms. If material changes are made to these Terms, we will notify
you by e-mail or by placing a prominent notice on our Site.

2. Accessing Our Site

2.1 Access to our Site is permitted on a temporary basis, and we
reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on
our Site without notice. We will not be liable if for any reason
our Site, or any part of it, is unavailable at any time for any
period

2.2 From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of
our Site, including the entire Portal, to registered members.

2.3 If you use your membership number or other user
identification code, password or any other piece of information as
part of our validation and security process and procedures, you
must treat such information as confidential, and you must not
disclose it to any third party. We have the right to disable any
user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or
allocated by us, at any time, if in our opinion you have failed to
comply with any of the provisions of these Terms.

2.4 When using our Site, you must comply with the provisions of
our acceptable use policy at Clause 4 of these Terms.

2.5 You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary
for you to have access to our Site. You are also responsible for
ensuring that all persons who access our Site on your behalf
through your internet connection are aware of these Terms, and that
they comply with them.

3. User eligibility

3.1 We will only knowingly provide services to parties that can
lawfully enter into and form contracts under applicable law.

3.2 By requesting a service on our Site, including booking an
event, making an enquiry, paying for your practising certificate
etc,, you warrant that you are legally capable of entering into
binding contracts and that you are at least 18 years old.

3.3 It is a condition of membership of our Site that all
registration details provided are and remain for the duration of
your membership true, accurate, current and complete. As a member,
you agree to notify us, by emailing us at records@barcouncil.org.uk
of any changes to your registration details.

3.4 During the registration process a member will be asked to
create a username and password. We reserve the right to refuse to
grant you a username that we believe, in our sole discretion,
impersonates another person, infringes somebody else's trademark or
other intellectual property right, or is offensive, defamatory or
otherwise inappropriate.

4. Acceptable Use Policy

4.1 This acceptable use policy sets out the terms between you
and us under which you may access our Site. This acceptable use
policy applies to all users of, and visitors to, our Site. Your use
of our Site means that you accept, and agree to abide by, all the
policies in this acceptable use policy. Failure to comply with this
acceptable use policy constitutes a material breach of these Terms,
upon which you are permitted to use our Site, and may result in our
taking all or any of the following actions:

• Immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to
use our Site;
• Immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any posting or
material uploaded by you to our Site;
• Issue of a warning to you;
• Legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on
an indemnity basis resulting from the breach (including, but not
limited to, all legal costs);
• Further legal or disciplinary action against you; or
• Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities or
regulators as is reasonably necessary.
We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of
this acceptable use policy. The actions described above are not
limited and we may take any other action we reasonably deem to be
appropriate.

4.2 You may not:

(a) use our Site for any legal activities or for a purpose which
is not authorised by these Terms;
(b) use our Site in any way that may damage or disrupt another
user's computer;
(c) modify, create derivative works from, reverse engineer,
decompile or disassemble any technology used to provide the
services;
(d) upload, transmit or post any computer viruses, worms or Trojan
horses, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other
harmful files, programs or similar computer code designed to
adversely affect the operation of any computer software or
hardware;
(e) do anything to disrupt, damage, impair, interrupt, slow down
or effect the functionality of our Site;
(f) impersonate another person or entity or create a false
identity for the purpose of misleading any other user or member as
to the identity of the sender or the origin of a message;
(g) do anything that would interfere with another user's ability
to use or enjoy our Site or the services or that would discourage a
user from using our Site or engaging our services; or
(h) send, upload, post or otherwise make available any solicited
or unauthorised advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail",
"spam", "chain letters", "pyramid schemes" or any duplicative or
unsolicited messages.

4.3 You are responsible for keeping your user name and password
secret and secure. Please report any unauthorised use of your
account to us at records@barcouncil.org.uk as soon as possible.

4.4 A member's account enables you to use the services including
booking an event, making an enquiry, paying for your practising
certificate etc. You will be held responsible for all activities on
your member's account.

4.5 We may revise this acceptable use policy at any time by
amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time
to time to take notice of any changes we make, as they are legally
binding on you. Some of the provisions of this acceptable use
policy may also be superseded by provisions or notices published
elsewhere on our Site.

5. Copyright

6.1 All rights, including copyright and database rights, in our
Site and its contents, and in the services, are owned by or
licensed to us, or otherwise used by us as permitted by applicable
law or the copyright holder. You are entitled to view, copy,
download and store temporarily such content from our Site on one
computer hard drive, print no more than one copy (no further copies
of such material may be made by any means) and store such material
in electronic format on disk, provided it is for your own personal
non-commercial use. The intellectual property rights in such
material shall be retained by us.

6.2 You may not remove any copyright, trademark or intellectual
property notices contained in the original material from any
material downloaded or copied from our Site.

6.3 Copying, distributing or any use of the material contained
on our Site for any commercial purpose is prohibited.

6.4 You may not create a database by systematically downloading
substantial parts of our Site.

6.5 We grant you a limited revocable license to access and use
our Site and the services for their intended purposes, subject to
your compliance with these Terms. This license does not include the
right to collect or use information contained on our Site for the
following purposes: (a) to create derivative works based on the
content of our Site; or
(b) to download or copy our Site (other than page caching).

6.6 If you use our Site in a manner that exceeds the scope of
this license or you breach these Terms, we may revoke the license
granted to you and reserve all our rights.

6. Trademarks

All names, images, logos identifying us or our services are our
proprietary marks. All third party names, logos, images or branding
relating to a company, product or service contained on our Site are
the trademarks, service marks and trade names of their respective
holders. Unless you have obtained the holders' explicit written
consent (either from us or the appropriate third party), we do not
give permission for any use of any such trademark, service mark or
trade name by any person other than the holders. Any such use may
constitute an infringement of the relevant holder's rights.

7. Viruses, hacking and other offences

You must not misuse our Site by knowingly introducing viruses,
Trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or
technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised
access to our Site, the server on which our Site is stored or any
server, computer or database connected to our Site. You must not
attack our Site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed
denial-of-service attack. By breaching this provision, you would
commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We
will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement
authorities and we will cooperate with those authorities by
disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach,
your right to use our Site will cease immediately.

8. External links

Our Site may contain links to other websites, which are outside
of our control. We have not reviewed such websites and they are
provided solely for information purposes. You hereby acknowledge
that such websites are independent from our Site, that we have no
control over the content of the linked third party websites and
that you visit such third party websites entirely at your own risk.
We accept no responsibility for the content of such websites nor do
we accept responsibility or liability for any losses or penalties
whatsoever that may be incurred as a result of your use of any
links to any other websites or reliance on the content of any
website to which our Site is linked or to which you are
directed.

9. Framing, linking and deep-linking

You may not frame, link or deep-link our Site to any other
website without our prior written consent. Should you wish to frame
or to set up a link / deep-link to our Site please e-mail us at
contactus@barstandardsboard.org.uk

10. Complaints

If you have any complaints about our Site, we want to hear from
you so we can improve it. Please e-mail us at
contactus@barstandardsboard.org.uk and we will consider your
comments carefully.

11. Our rights

11.1 Any rights not expressly granted herein
are reserved to the Bar Council or Bar Standards Board.

11.2 The Bar Council or Bar Standards Board
will always seek criminal prosecution of any individual who, or
organisation which, seeks to use the Bar Council's or Bar Standards
Board's name, material, logos or trademarks for unlawful purposes
and, where appropriate, will take action within the civil courts of
any applicable jurisdiction against any individual or organisation
discovered to be using the Bar Council's or Bar Standards Board's
name, logos, trademarks or our Site for unauthorised or unlawful
purposes.

11.3 The failure by the Bar Council or Bar
Standards Board to exercise any right or remedy under these Terms
shall not constitute a waiver of that right or remedy.

12. Disclaimer and warranties

12.1 We have made every effort to ensure that
the information contained on our Site is accurate and up-to-date at
the time of publication. However, you hereby acknowledge that some
of the information is provided by third parties and/or members of
our Site. We do not guarantee the quality, accuracy, timeliness,
completeness or fitness for purpose of the information provided on
our Site. No responsibility is accepted by or on behalf of us for
any errors, omissions or inaccurate information on our Site or its
content. We are not responsible for how the information is used,
how it is interpreted or what reliance is placed on it.

12.2 The information and content of our Site is
for general information only and is not intended to, nor does it,
constitute legal or other professional advice or services or a
recommendation to purchase any product or service upon which a
specific decision should be made. It is provided for general
information purposes only and does not address your particular
circumstances. Accordingly, you should not rely upon the content of
our Site as a substitute for proper professional advice and should
consider seeking your own independent advice.

12.3 We do not accept any responsibility for
the results of any action taken on the basis of the information
provided on our Site and all warranties, including implied
warranties of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose, non
infringement and accuracy are excluded to the fullest extent that
they may be excluded under applicable law. To the fullest extent
permitted by law the Bar Council or Bar Standards Board will not be
liable for any claims, costs, penalties, loss (whether direct,
indirect or consequential and whether economic or special loss),
damages or expenses arising from the use or from the inability to
use our Site or from reliance on information or on advice contained
on our Site or from any unauthorised access or alteration to our
Site by a third party.

12.4 Without prejudice to your statutory
rights, our Site and all information, text, names, images,
pictures, logos, links and icons and other materials (without
limitation) are provided 'AS IS' and on an 'AS AVAILABLE' basis
without representation warranty or endorsement, express or implied.
The Bar Council and Bar Standards Board have done their best to
ensure the accuracy and currency of the materials contained on our
Site but to the fullest extent permitted by law exclude any
warranty, whether express or implied, by statute at common law or
otherwise, relating to our Site and the material contained on our
Site.

12.5 We do not guarantee that our Site (or any
part of it) or any content is compatible with your computer
equipment nor that our Site (or any part of it), or its server, is
free of errors or viruses, worms, bugs or Trojan horses, logic
bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically
harmful.

12.6 We will try to make our Site available but
cannot guarantee that our Site will operate continuously or without
interruptions, or be error-free, and can accept no liability for
its unavailability. We will provide the service using reasonable
skill and care and we make no warranties other than those made
expressly in these Terms. We hereby disclaim to the extent
permitted by law all other express or implied warranties (including
without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose
and merchantability) other than those which cannot be excluded by
law.

13. Limitation of liability

13.1 Except for liability for fraudulent
misrepresentation or in relation to death and personal injury
arising from negligence, and subject to clause 14.4, neither party
shall be liable to the other or any person for any indirect,
incidental, punitive or consequential damages arising from the use
of our Site, any information contained on our Site or our services
displayed on our Site, including, without limitation use or loss of
use, loss of data, profits, revenue, business or anticipated
savings, whether in action of contract, negligence or other
tortious action arising out of or in connection with the use of our
Site.

13.2 Except for liability for fraudulent
misrepresentation or in relation to death and personal injury
arising from our negligence, and subject to clause 14.4, we will
not be responsible or liable to you or any third party for:

(a) the content of websites to which our Site provides links and
we do not accept responsibility or liability for any losses or
penalties whatsoever that may be incurred as a result of your use
of any links to any other websites or reliance on the content of
any website to which our Site is linked or to which you are
directed;
(b) any loss arising from use of the information on our
Site;
(c) any loss, disruption, damage of your data or computer system
which you may suffer as a result of the transmission of any errors
or viruses, worms, bugs or Trojan horses, any distributed
denial-of-service attack or other technologically harmful material
that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or
other proprietary material due to your use of our Site, or to your
downloading of any material posted on them, or any website linked
to them or other such destructive feature via our Site;
and/or
(d) for deleting any or other materials relating to your use of
the service on our servers or otherwise in our possession following
termination of your use of our Site and/or the service in
accordance with Clause 14.4.
14.3 Except for liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or in
relation to death and personal injury arising from our negligence
and subject to clauses 14.1, 14.2 and 14.4, our liability to the
you or any third person for any and all damage or loss that may
arise from the use of our Site, any information contained on our
Site or our services displayed on our Site shall not exceed the
greater of (i) the fees paid by you to us during the twelve months
immediately preceding the event that gave rise to such liability or
(ii) £1,000 (one thousand pounds sterling).

13.4 The exclusions and limitations of
liability in this Clause 14 do not affect your statutory rights as
a consumer which cannot under applicable law be excluded by
agreement.

14. Termination

15.1 Either party may terminate these Terms upon notice to the
other if the other is in material breach of these Terms. If you are
in material breach of these Terms we may (in our sole discretion)
upon notice to you:

(a) suspend, limit your access to or terminate your use of our
Site and/or the service; and/or
(b) suspend, limit your access to or terminate your account.
15.2 If you or we terminate your use of our Site and/or the
Service, we may delete any materials relating to your use of the
Service on our servers or otherwise in our possession.

15. Severability

If any of the terms and/or conditions of these Terms should be
determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable,
it/they shall be severed and deleted from these Terms and all other
terms and/or conditions shall remain in full force and continue to
be binding and enforceable.

16. Entire agreement

Without prejudice to your or our rights in respect of fraud or
fraudulent misrepresentation, these Terms constitute the entire
understanding and agreement between you and us regarding the
subject matter of these Terms and supersede all prior and
contemporaneous agreements and understandings between you and us
regarding the subject matter of these Terms.

17. Rights of third parties

Notwithstanding anything else in these Terms, the Contracts
(Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 shall not apply to any contract
between you and us and no contractual rights are conferred on any
third parties.

18. Governing law and jurisdiction

18.1 These Terms shall be governed by and
construed in accordance with the laws of England. The courts of
England shall, subject to clause 19.2 below, have exclusive
jurisdiction over any claims, dispute or matter arising under or in
connection with these Terms.

18.2 We shall retain the right to bring
proceedings in the courts of the country of residence of any user
of our Site.